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Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China

Lee Cheuk-yan, chairman of vigil organiser, the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China, said one of the 21 Tiananmen activists wanted by the Communist Party had already arrived in Hong Kong from the United States, ready to join tomorrow's candlelight event to mourn comrades who died in the crackdown.

They have been accustomed to pressure - mostly coming from a northerly direction - for 20-plus years. But this year, the organisers of the annual June 4 vigil are feeling the heat from an unlikely source much closer to home.

Beijing once saw Szeto Wah as Hong Kong's potential answer to Lee Kuan Yew, the architect of modern Singapore, after 1997, the late democracy stalwart revealed in his memoirs, launched posthumously yesterday.

A spokesman for the central government's top advisory body yesterday rejected the notion that an uprising inspired by the 'jasmine' revolts in Egypt and Tunisia could break out in China. He was the first high-ranking official to respond directly to fledgling protests in mainland cities on Sunday.

The funeral of Szeto Wah highlighted one of the central ironies of Hong Kong: the fact that the democrats who are hated by Beijing and not allowed to set foot on mainland soil were the original leaders of patriotic movements in the former British colony.

Dozens of protesters demonstrated outside North Point police station last night demanding the release of two June 4 activists - unionist lawmaker Lee Cheuk-yan and veteran campaigner Leung Kwok-wah - arrested after a second day of clashes over a commemoration of the Tiananmen square crackdown.

Doctors will decide whether veteran Democrat Szeto Wah, who is battling lung cancer, will need to start electrotherapy next month after he attends events marking the 21st anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown.